The Blog of Bishop Will Willimon of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Resisting the Clutches of Consumerism

Our government no longer refers to us as “citizens,” but as “consumers.” If we can get you to consume cigarettes, cars, mouthwash, and sedatives, then we can get you to consume people. That is why Calvin Klein uses soft kiddie porn to sell blue jeans. Consumption.

Therefore the question: “How could we, who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, rather than say Michael Eisner as Lord, how can we as a church resist the corrosive acids of Capitalism?”

The immediate problem that confronts is that our church is accommodationist. Even though we know that there is a strong, critical strain in Wesleyanism against the evils of “riches,” we quickly learned in this society that there is no way to be a successful, responsible, public church, without submitting to the political vision that says that there is no greater purpose of human community than accumulation and aggrandizement.

For this reason, the “user friendly” approach to church won’t work. There is no way to entice people off the streets with hymns that are based on advertising jingles and end up with the cross-bearing, self-sacrificial, burden-bearing Jesus. Evangelism cannot be based upon our basic selfishness (“Come to Jesus and get everything you want fixed.”) and end up with anything resembling historic Christianity.

One of the reasons why Church is difficult is that the modern media culture (a culture which has no other purpose than giving us what we want, since “getting what we want” is the main purpose of life) has been so successful in forming us into such consumers.

In the middle of a sermon I said, “If you bring a child into this church, say a child of four or five, that child will have a difficult time during the service. Church does not come naturally. The child will have to be trained to sing this music, to bend his life toward these stories, to pay attention to that which he quite naturally avoids. If you take that same child into Toys R Us, no training is necessary. Greed comes to us quite naturally. After all, this is America.”

But then I caught myself in mid-sentence, and said, “No, that’s not quite fair to Toys R Us. Billions have been spent, and our very best talent expended, in forming that child into the habits of consumption. Barney is not innocent.”

For me, one of the most moving moments, is when people come forward to receive the Lord’s Supper. They shuffle forward and hold out their hands to receive the elements of communion. I look into their outstretched empty hands. I say, “I notice that your hands are empty, as if you were empty, needing some gift, grace.”

They reply to me, “Oh no, not at all. I have my Masters degree, a well-fixed pension.”

I persist, “That all may be true, but in this moment, you look touchingly dependent, as if your life would be nothing if you did not receive a gift.”

The good news of the gospel is that such bad news about us is the great good news about God. God is determined to get back what God owns. And we, timid church though we are, are part of God’s plan to win back the world.

One night in a Duke dormitory Bible study I had some bad news to deliver. Luke 18:18-26. Jesus meets a young, upwardly mobile, smart young man. The students perk up upon meeting one of their own in the Bible. Having kept all the rules so well, the young man is looking for a real spiritual challenge. Jesus says, “Just one little thing is left. Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor, strip down, follow me.”

With that the young man got real depressed. Jesus remarks to his students, “It is hard to save these upwardly mobile types. Easier to shove a fully loaded dromedary though the eye of a needle. Impossible! Of course, with God, anything is…possible.”

I then asked the students what they thought of Jesus’ prejudice against wealth.

“Isn’t that great?” one said, “Just laid things out so directly. Lots of times with Jesus, you can’t figure out what he wants you to do. Here, it’s different. I like his candor. He’s so clear, almost anybody can figure it out. This guy hears what Jesus is up to and knows he doesn’t want any part of it. That’s great.”

Then another student. “I like the way Jesus believes in him. He invites him to join up. I’m looking for a challenge just now; maybe that’s why I like this. Jesus believes in him. Like me, this guy probably can’t imagine that it’s possible for him to break free, to let go of all that stuff, not to go to law school, not to please his parents. But Jesus thinks he can do it, even him.”

That night I learned that sometimes the difference between bad news and good news is where you happen to be when you get the news. The breakdown and dissolution of American culture, otherwise known as Disneyworld, is a gift, a marvelous time for us to attempt to save people before it’s too late, to learn to worship a God whose victories come through righteousness not riches. To call everyone to confess that Jesus Christ is the one Word of God whom we must listen in life and in death.

William H. Willimon

Don't forget to join Tony Campolo, Dr. C.T. Vivian, and me at ClearBranch United Methodist Church on January 6!

41 comments:

I thoroughly enjoyed this blog all the way up until the final paragraph. I don't quite understand what you think Jesus really intends us to do. Are we supposed to not take Jesus literally? Are we not literally resisting America's consumer culture? I'm thinking of Bonhoeffer's argument with Emil Brunner in Nachfolge at this point. Brunner insists that we can't really obey Jesus command. Bonhoeffer insists that that's how to obey. So which is it?

There is no other time of year when it is so easy to shine the bright light on our shallow contemporary existence. I love the ending because it is simple and true – this is yet another opportunity to reach out – regardless of the response you receive from people.

Nice. I am glad I have found this, in seminary I read "Resident Aliens" which resonated within me deeply. As I read the section about communion, I wondered how I would answer. Most of us need to be honest and admit that maybe we too would answer the same way even though we know where we need to be.

Today, the Microsoft-owned in-game ad agency said that it has signed an exclusive multiyear agreement with Blizzard. Azerothians opposed to seeing in-game ads in their local world of warcft gold watering holes need not worry, however, because the deal is limited to Blizzard's Web sites and Battle.net,the game maker's online-gaming hub. Terms of the deal were not announced, but Massive did note that the agreement is applicable to users in the US, Canada, Europe, South Korea, and Australia.buy wow gold

Massive also said today that it would be extending its aforementioned deal with Activision to encompass an additional 18 games appearing on the Xbox 360 and PC.cheap wow goldThe agency didn't fully delineate which would fall under this deal, though it did call out Guitar Hero: World Tour, James Bond: Quantum of Solace, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,buy wow items as well as games in its Tony Hawk and AMAX Racing franchises.Shortly before Activision and Vivendi announced their deal of the decade,wow power leveling the Guitar Hero publisher signed on to receive in-game advertisements from Massive Inc for a number of its Xbox 360 and PC games. A bit more than a year later, Massive is now extending its reach to Activision's new power player, Blizzard Entertainment.buy wow gold from our site ,you'll get more surprises!

AmandaIEC located in Yiwu, is a trusted one stop B2B export, trade, sourcing, wholesale site. You needn't to look for lots and lots Chinese small-and-medium-sized enterprises on B2B platform like alibaba.com, and then inquiry them one by one. You just send us an inquiry in detail, we do all other things. Browse Alphabetically: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,0-9. Start your one stop China wholesale sourcing here today and experience first class service and fast shipping. Save your time, save your cost, and guard against fraud.

WoW shares many wow gold of its features with previously launched games. Essentially, you battle with Cheapest wow gold monsters and traverse the countryside, by yourself or as a buy cheap wow gold team, find challenging tasks, and go on to higher Cheap Wow Gold levels as you gain skill and experience. In the course of your journey, you will be gaining new powers that are increased as your skill rating goes up. All the same, in terms of its features and quality, that is a ture stroy for this.WoW is far ahead of all other games of the genre the wow power leveling game undoubtedly is in a league of its own and cheapest wow gold playing it is another experience altogether.Even though WoW is a wow gold cheap rather complicated game, the controls and interface are done in buy warhammer gold such a way that you don't feel the complexity. A good feature of the game is that it buy wow items does not put off people with lengthy manuals. The instructions cannot be simpler and the pop up tips can help you start playing the game World Of Warcraft Gold immediately. If on the other hand, you need a detailed manual, the instructions are there for you to access. Buy wow gold in this site,good for you ,WoW Gold, BUY WOW GOLD.

WoW shares many wow gold of its features with previously launched games. Essentially, you battle with monsters and traverse the countryside, by yourself or as a team, find challenging tasks, and go on to higher cheap wow gold levels as you gain skill and experience. In the course of your journey, you will be gaining new powers that are increased as your skill rating goes up. All the same, in terms of its features and quality, that is a ture stroy for this.WoW is far ahead of all other games of the genre the wow power leveling game undoubtedly is in a league of its own and playing it is another experience altogether.

Even though WoW is a wow gold cheap rather complicated game, the controls and interface are done in buy warhammer gold such a way that you don't feel the complexity. A good feature of the game is that it buy wow items does not put off people with lengthy manuals. The instructions cannot be simpler and the pop up tips can help you start playing the game buy cheap world of warcraft gold immediately. If on the other hand, you need a detailed manual, the instructions are there for you to access. Buy wow gold in this site,good for you ,WoW Gold, BUY WOW GOLD.

If you are cheap wow gold trying any unknown cheats to earn gold, you would cheapest wow gold face some problem and your account will be black out. So don't try to wow gold cheap find cheats instead try to wow7gold follow the guideline of world of warcraft. These tips could euwowgoldwork as gold cheat and can help a lot to earn gold and money. World of Warcraft is the most exiting online game and while Playing the game most of the players struggle ogpal to earn a lot of gold.

Most of the players World Of Warcraft Goldtry search cheat code for this game to earn gold. This article will help xowow you a lot to earn more and more gold.The best way to earn gold in this online game is by going through the guidelines wow gold for saleand other information about wowgold4europethe game that are available on the internet .

It was not long cheap wow goldbefore some one knocked at wow gold for salethe house-door and called, open the door, dear children, your mother is here, and wow gold cheap has brought something back with her for each of you. But the little cheapest wow goldkids knew that it was the wolf, by the rough voice. We will fastgg not open the door, cried they, you are not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but your voice is rough, you are the wolf.

Then the wolf went World Of Warcraft Goldaway to a shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made mmogap his voice soft with it. The he came back, knocked at the door of the house, and igsky called, open the door, dear children, your mother is here and Cheapest Wow Goldhas brought something back with her for each of you.

It is what we call 'the syndrome of the passive patient'. Basically we can't have anything with nothing and we know that if the client does not implicate himself wow gold or herself a little bit financially then he or she won't make the effort later on and make biodegradable cutlery the changes which are truly necessary. This is why it is essential for me that the wow gold people I help implicate themselves and why I do not work for free. It is very important for me to know that I am not working pointlessly on an individual's analysis, wow gold producing a reading that wow gold 5000 will not be fully read or assimilated while all I really want to do is to pass on the valuable information which SRO gold. is going to so radically change your life Isis. Experience has shown me that the only means for me to be absolutely certain that the person who requests my work Get free WOW gold is going wow gold sale to make the effort and implicate himself or herself to bring about real change is to ask for a small financial participation. Isis, you will understand that if you don't want pulp egg tray to spend a few dollars to ask me to produce this full reading for you whilst I have already spent overfood container 10 hours on your file without asking you for anything at all in return (once again please understand SRO gold

Tibet Travel Dot Info offers first-hand and up-to-date tibet travel information - tours, maps, climate, transportation, accommodation, travel tips,We are offering tibet tour in great discount,Tibet tours by local Tibet travel agency - Access Tibet Tour help you travel to tibet with ease, with tibet tour guide, Tibet Adventure Travel packages!U-Way is a new travel company Specilized in china tibet tours, furnish cheap tibet tours in 2009, if you wanna travel to tibet, please believe in u-waytours, let we work-team service for you.. We are provide tibet trekking routes,Tibet travel permit and overall service of travelling to TibetAs we know,wow gold guide and on our website.Free gold guide We have available stock of gold on most of the servers